College Sports Blog

Recently, when Longhorns lose, they do so in bunches

Until recently, losing streaks weren’t a problem for Rick Barnes’ basketball teams. In 2005-06, the Longhorns only had one losing streak, a two-gamer. In 2006-07, they had two two-game losing streaks. In 2007-08, there was one two-game streak. In 2008-09, one three-game streak.

Overall, that’s an outstanding consistency and resiliency. But in the past three seasons, Texas is losing in bunches. And it’s only getting worse.

In the 2009-10 season that ended in a quick NCAA tourney exit, an overtime loss to Wake Forest, Texas had three two-game losing streaks, with four cases of isolated losses.

In 2010-11, Texas had five losing streaks (2, 3, 2, 2, 2) with three isolated losses.

And now, still with 13 regular season games remaining in the 2011-12 campaign that will likely break Barnes’ 13-year streak of NCAA tournament seasons, the Longhorns are mired in their worst rut since the final week of George H.W. Bush’s presidential tenure. They’ve lost five straight games to go with two other two-game streaks. They only have one case of an isolated loss — meaning once they get on a bad slide, the Longhorns just can’t find their way off.